About Us

This organization is open to King County residents under the age of 36 who declare themselves to be a Democrat. We aim to stimulate an active interest in governmental affairs and help young voters influence elections. We only endorse candidates who uphold the progressive social and economic policies our county values.

Matt Kanter is the Chair for the King County Young Democrats for 2020, having previously serving in the role in 2017. He has also served in the roles of Political Director, and Co-Treasurer for KCYD. In Junior High, he memorized all the Governors and Senators in the US (something he tries to maintain to this day). He’s loved politics since then, but didn’t start to get involved until he joined the fight to (successfully) landmark some historic buildings and businesses in his neighborhood.

In addition to KCYD, Matt has previously served as a board member for the 36th District Democrats, the Young Democrats of Washington, King County Democratic Central Committee, Friends of Historic Belltown, and the City of Seattle’s Commission for People with Disabilities, where he worked on the successful effort to ban the practice of sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities in coalition with amazing leaders in the disability community. Currently he works in customer service for a union plumber, but he has done everything from marketing and sales to non-profit community outreach to policy advocacy (focusing on ending Youth Homelessness in Washington State). He is currently a Glass Leadership Institute fellow with the Anti-Defamation League, and has completed the Institute for a Democratic Future fellowship, the Get Engaged! fellowship with the City of Seattle and the Accelerator YMCA, the Advanced Leadership Development Program with the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and the People’s Academy for Civic Engagement with the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. He is also completing his Bachelor’s with Western Governors University. In his free time he likes to watch cartoons, read Wikipedia and sharpen the skills he developed when he graduated from Culinary School.

A proud UW alum, Nina Park was born and raised in the greater Seattle area. After college, Nina moved to Italy to attend international bartending programs and continued to travel before setting roots in her hometown. Nina started at the City of Seattle in 2018, working on the search and hiring of members for the Mayoral Cabinet. Implementing new and equitable interview processes, the result of this work is one of the most diverse Mayoral Cabinets the City has seen. She is currently a executive assistant for the HR Deputy in Transportation and is passionate about making government involvement and employment accessible. She is excited to bring her experiences to help KCYD continue to empower civic engagement. Nina enjoys spending time with her plants, listening to 90s music, and rooting for the Huskies.

Yuan Tao grew up in Texas, and she left as soon as possible. In Seattle, she was on the executive board of the 37th Legislative District Democrats for two years, during which time she tried to make the organization as accessible as possible. She redesigned the website and the newsletter, pushed for greater community visibility via participation in community events, streamed the monthly meetings online, and implemented executive board office hours. She does not own a car, so she relies on (and complains about) buses and her squeaky bike to get around. Yuan currently works as a data analyst for Harborview Medical Center. In her free time, she loves reading and watching SciFi and playing video games.

Timea Soos is a social scientist, educator, and writer based in Bellevue, Washington. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in History from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. She is driven by her passion for equity and desire to work towards creating equitable educational outcomes within our current education system.

Kari is a Wisconsin native, but her background in electoral politics has taken her across the country several times. She is happy to have found a home here in Seattle. In addition to energizing populations of untapped potential to elect strong, smart, forward-thinking candidates, leading her precinct in GOTV activities, and stay tuned to national politics, Kari loves to read page-turning novels, run, hike with her partner and doggie, and drink coffee. She is honored to have the opportunity to lead Young Democrats in King County as Political Director!

Nicole Palczewski was born in Ballard and has spent her entire life living in the Pacific Northwest. After being involved in the Oregon Benton County Democrats in college and working in almost every level of government, she decided Washington was still home and has settled in Belltown (36th LD represent!). Nicole works as a nonprofit fundraiser and housing policy activist by day and hopes to help change King County policies to be stronger and more inclusive for everyone the rest of the time. When she’s not working, Nicole likes going down internet rabbit holes about completely useless information and watching documentaries, then wondering how it got so late in the day.

Mike DeVine (he/him) is a web developer based out of Kirkland. A native of Long Island, NY, he is often confused by the strange, friendly ways of the West Coast. Mike was raised in the suburbs along with his younger siblings, attended Suffolk County Community College after high school, and later transferred to Rochester Institute of Technology, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in New Media Interactive Development.

Mike worked for years with various government entities during his time living in Arlington, VA, but was only driven to take political action after the 2016 presidential election scared the complete hell out of him. He joined the Young Democrats because he believes that the problems our society faces are systemic, long-term, and will require a generational effort by individuals driven to secure a future for themselves, and for those who come after.

Mike also currently serves as YDWA’s Tech Director and chair of Nerd Caucus, is an elected Precinct Committee Officer (PCO), is the At-Large Director East for the King County Young Democrats, and is KCYD’s Representative and Tech Committee Chair for the 45th District Democrats.

When he’s not laboring over a hot MacBook, Mike enjoys playing and collecting retro video games, watching the Yankees, Mariners, and Padres, and playing badminton. He is also lucky enough to be cat-dad to Tails, the undisputed Best Cat of Washington State.

Keelcy Perez is an advocate for immigrant and human rights. Originally from Eastern Washington, she is a first-generation graduate from the University of Idaho where she triple majored in Political Science, International Studies and Spanish. She then went on to the University of Washington, School of Law to complete a master’s degree in law (Go Dawgs!). Keelcy currently works for Tableau Software on business immigration matters and was previously at Slalom Consulting and a Consultant for the City of Seattle within the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. Keelcy joins KCYD with the hopes to continue to activate young voters! Other than politics, Keelcy enjoys running, traveling, and volunteering her time serving on local and state-wide boards.

Dan Tran was born in the great state capital of Olympia and lived in the Pudget Sound all his life. A proud UW alum, he was active in advocating on a range of student issues including campus accessibility, housing affordability, and public transportation. Since then, he has been involved in numerous political organizations, including the 48th District Democrats. He hopes to be able to engage with many young voters to become passionate about civic engagement. Dan currently works as a software development engineer at Microsoft as part of its Linux Systems Group. Other than politics, Dan enjoys reading, playing video games, and playing the clarinet which he has played since 5th grade!